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SPEECH 



OP 



MR. JAS. WILSON, OF N. HAMPSHIRE, 



ON 



THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY, AND THE EXPE- 
DIENCY OF PERMITTING SLAVERY IN THE TERRI- 
TORIES RECENTLY ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO : 



V.^ 



DELIVERED '7»''^-^ 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, 



February 16; 1849. 



""NN^/rcf WK\^ 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY J. & G. S. GIDEON. 
1849. 



'^. 



^^\^ 

^1*: 



SPEECH. 



The bill to provide for carrying into execution, in part, the 12th article of the treaty with Mexico, 
being under discussion — the House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union — 

Mr. WILSON addressed the committee substantially as follows: 

Mr. Chairman: I deem it unnecessary to make any apology to the committee for 
breaking the silence which I have studiously imposed on myself since taking my 
seat in this Congress. I propose to speak of slavery, deeming it the (juedion, not 
merely of this country, but of theAvhole Christian world — emphatically the question 
of the age, and its discussion upon this floor fit and proper, in reference to its influ- 
ences and bearings upon our national affairs. 

The honorable gentleman from Alabama, (Mr. Hilliard,) the other day, spoke 
truly in regard to the effects of slavery in the southern States of this Union; that 
they are isolated, cut off from the sympathy of the Christian States of the world, by 
reason of that peculiar domestic institution. I concur entirely with the honorable 
gentleman in that opinion, and award to him high credit for his honest, frank, manly 
avowal of that truth upon this floor. I rejoice, sir, that the truth is known to south- 
ern gentlemen, and proclaimed here by one of their number of large experience 
and acknowledged ability. 

It has been said by some one, that " man is the child of circumstance." It is a 
sage remark, and true; and to me it is not surprising that gentlemen should enter- 
tain different opinions, and should rise here in debate and express opposite views, 
upon the subject of slavery. I know, can feel, and realize, that my own views and 
opinions are influenced much by the impressions received in childhood; and, while 
I am conscious of that in myself, it is but just to infer that other men are influenced 
by the circumstances with which they were surrounded during the receptive period 
of early life. It excites no marvel in my mind that gentlemen who have first seen 
the light of uiy at the South — who have first opened their eyes to the realities of 
life under the auspices of that institution — who were early taught to commanu,^ and 
that it was their right to be obeyed — who had but to say to a certain class of indi- 
viduals around them, " Come," and they would come; " Go," and they woidd go. 
I can very well realize and understand how it is that gentlemen, accustomed from 
their childhood to command, being nurtured in this way up to the condition of man- 
hood, should entertain entirely different opinions from those which I, and those who 
have been brought up as I have been, entertain. In the northern States of this 
Union, we are taught from childhood to look upon labor as the condition of life; to 
think from the outset that we are born to labor. The child is instructed and made 
to know that if he wants anything done within the compass of his own ability, he 
must do it for himself. He is encouraged to eftbrt, and compelled, if need be, to 
make it. Labor becomes habit. 

I have said, sir, that, in the free-labor States of this Union, even the little chil- 
dren are required to labor according to their intellectual ability and physical strength. 
Even from its cradle it is put to work. It is aroused from its morning slumbers to 
be greeted by the smiles of a kind mother, and is encouraged to make the etiort to 
do for itself what it may be able to do. It is not, to be sure, furnished with the 
heavy tools, the drills and hammers, picks and gads, of the miner, and sent to sink 
shafts in trap rock or limestone, in search of copper ore; it is not lurmshed with a 
spade and windlass, rope and tub, and sent away to sink its shaft m clay diggings, 
in search of lead mineral. No, sir; but, its morning bath and wardrobe attended 
to, and its breakfast finished, it has its working tools, consistmg of some simple 
books, carefully arranged in a little satchel, wrought all over with pictures oi birds 
and butterflies and flowers, in gay colors, by the hand of a kind sister. Ihus 
equipped, it is sent away to the village school, to work— to work. It begins to sink 
its shaft down into its own intellect; it sinks on and on, deeper and deeper. l.n- 
couraged by its success, it perseveres, until, by and by, it brings up to view, and 
for the use of mankind, treasures infinitely more valuable than the gold trom ttie 



mines of Mexico, or Peru, or California — gems more brilliant than ever sparkled 
upon the brow of queens, or blazed in the halls of rovalty. 

The powers of the mind, like the muscles of the b'ody, must be trained and dis- 
ciplined to vii,rorous, energetic, persevering effort, if they are to exhibit their full 
strength; and these are some of the results \vhich we are justified in expecting from 
those whose early condition imposes upon them the necessity of early intelFectual 
antl physical labor. 

It .«-halI be my purpose, during the little time allotted to me by the rules of this 
House, to speak on the subject of slavery as connected with the' political aflairs of 
the country, regarding it merely in a political view, without attempting to discuss 
the question generally in its moral aspects. Upon this subject I desire to premise 
a few things, in order that I may be fully understood. 

In the lirst place, I must say that 1 do not assent, to the fullest extent, to the 
charge which is sometimes made against the South with reference to the amount of 
physical sullering indicted upon the African race. I do not believe that the slaves 
of the southern States are commonly subjected to those extreme physical sufferings 
so often alhrmed by the opposers of slavery. I cannot believe it. Having never 
been taught to look upon all men as demons, I cannot think that there is,°on the 
face of the earth, in any part of the Christian world, certainly not in this our own 
beloved country, any considerable number of persons devoid of every feeling of 
human sympathy. Considering the early and intimate relation that must neces- 
sarily subsist between tlie master and his slaves, I am constrained to believe that 
there must be a great deal of just sympathy felt by the superior for his inferior. There 
may be, and undoubtedly are, many exceptions. Eut I cannot doubt that, wherever 
a slaveholder exercises unreasonable severity towards his bond people — wherever 
he withholds from them reasonable necessary supplies for their physical comforts, or 
overtasks their physical strength — he is censured as severely, and his course con- 
demned as heartily, by his brother slaveholders as he would be by the most ardent 
advocates of freedom. 

But there is another point upon Avhich I rest my chief objection to the institution, 
and that is, that the condition of the slave is absolutely and irretrievably fixed. 
There are no means of improvement left to the slave; he has no power — no hope of 
moral or intellectual elevation. 

In the northern States of this Union there is no man so poor that he is w-ithout 
this hope, either for himself or his children. However broken and dilapidated the 
cabin that imperfectly shelters him; however meagre the stock of provisions on 
hand to supply the daily wants of himself and family; however scanty their ward- 
robes; still he has the cheering consciousness that he is a freeman. He has a 
bright and confident hope of better days for himself or for his children. There is 
nothing in the laws of the land where he lives to bind him down, and his children 
after him, to a condition of hopeless degradation. There is the village school-house 
hard by his dwelling. His children have equal j^rivileges with those of the w-ealth- 
iest. They associate on terms of perfect equality in the school-room; and often, 
quite often, is it that the son or the daughter of the poorest parents in the district 
stand at the head of the school for scientific attainment; they return home with the 
highest reward of merit from the teacher. Think you that the father or mother, as 
they gaze upon the gay and happy faces of their children, while those children ex- 
hibit the evidences of their triumphs at the school, stop to think of their own po- 
verty, or yield to any despondency? No, sir. They are sustained by a bright, a 
cheering, a confident, hope. They would not exchange or barter that hoj)e of a 
bright future for their children for any earthly consideration. 

To the laboring slave population there is no such hope, either for the generation 
that now is, or for the long succession of generations that are to come in all future 
time. 

Now, the great question before tlic country is, whclher it be expedient for Con- 
gress to extend this institution of slavery into the Territories recently acquired from 
Mexico? I am aware of the charge which has been made, insisted upon, and 



-urged, reiterated here and elsewhere, in public speeches, and public documents, 
and papers of every class in the slave interest, that the North were constantly tres- 
passing upon the South, because they would not consent to the passage of laws 
making more secure the right of the slaveholder to his property. 1 undertake to 
say that, for the last fifty years of the history of this Government, this great .slavery 
question has been the very centre and focus of all our political action; the focal 
point around which every great national interest has revolved. 

I might illustrate by a comparison with the movements of the planets in their 
orbits around the natural sun. The figure of speech would not be quite accurate 
and appropriate, because, when we speak of the natural sun, we convey to the 
mind the idea of light and heat, warmth and life-giving energy throughoutthe en- 
tire sphere of its influence; while that central point of our polUical action is as black 
and dark as Egyptian darkness; as cold, and heartless, and unsympathizint^ as the 
icebergs that roll in the Arctic ocean. ^ 

I must ask the indulgence of the committee for a few moments while I refer to 
the introduction of slavery into this continent. During the same year that the 
Pilgrim Fathers of New England were escaping from the oppressions that had been 
inflicted upon them in the old world; while they were buffeting the waves of the 
Atlantic, in a frail water craft, in pursuit of a land where they could be free to study 
their Bibles, and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; in 
that same year (1620) a Dutch ship also found its way across the Atlantic, put into 
the mouth of James river, having on board some three or four-and-twenty Africans, 
Avho were brought to be sold into slavery. Such was the begmning of slavery in 
this country. The trade was soon monopolized by the English, and thev continued 
to prosecute it with great vigor, it proving a convenient traffic to enable'the mother 
country to extort the substance of the colonists. England was pursuing towards the 
colonies a system of policy by which she was enabled to convert to her oAvn advan- 
tage the commercial value of all the labor of the country. To her it was a matter 
of perfect indifference what the kind of labor was; whether free or slave, its bene- 
ficial results all enured to her profit. Slaves were brought rapidly into the country. 
Influenced partly by climate, but much more by the peculiar characteristics of the 
settlers of the northern and southern provinces, much the greater number of slaves 
were taken to the southern. The northern people were a laboring people. They 
shrunk not from the most severe trials and deprivations; encountering)- a ri"-orous 
climate, a barren granite soil, and patiently bending to the hardest labor to sustain 
themselves and enjoy only their religious freedom. Their reliance was upon their 
own manly efforts. They did not look to others to do their work for them, that they 
might indulge in unproductive indolence. As a consequence of this state of thincrs, 
there were but few slaves taken into the northern provinces. 

Let me here direct the attention of the committee to the political condition of the 
Colonies for a series of years preceding the Revolution. The old thirteen Colonies 
were communities with interests separate and distinct from each other. There was 
110 bond of union between them. They were each organized under its own roval 
charter, and the policy of England was to keep them as far as possible from tormino- 
any alliances, or becoming mutually dependent upon, or serviceable to, each other, 
by the free, unrestricted interchange of commercial commodities. This systein of 
poUcy was rigidly enforced upon the Colonies by the mother country, until it be- 
came so oppressive that they separated themselves from the power of England; 
threw off the yoke of oppression; in 1776 declared themselves independent, hi 
this act the old thirteen Colonies, or rather the people of the old thirteen Colonies, 
became "one united people," instead of thirteen separate provinces oi' the crown of 
England. In the Declaration of Independence they had first proclaimed to the 
world the great political truth of the equality of man, and his endowment by God 
with certain inalienable rights, among which are his right to "life, liberty, aiid the 
pursuit of happiness." This declaration was issued while the country was subjected 
■to the severe, the agonizing trials of civil war. It was to be maintained by the rigo- 



rous, unflinching; prosecution of tliat war: and for six years the people of the Colo- 
nies did maintain themselves gloriously, and came triumphantly out of it. The 
pressure of that war kept the people united. They fought in the common cause. 
All their energies were united against the common enemy. They never once 
stopped to consider the dilficulties and troubles which would beset them on every 
hand, whenever they should come to the trial of managing the affairs of Govern- 
ment in time of peace. In 1783 the war was terminated, and it was not till then 
they saw clearly the embarrassments which beset them in the government of the 
country in its new position. 

They had no government. Then came the greatest trial of the patriots of the 
country. It was then that this (juestion of slavery first presented itself, with its 
various conflicting interests, to annoy, perplex, and thwart them in their attempts to 
form a government of adequate strength and power, to answer all the requisite 
purposes of government. 

The people of the United Colonies had solemnly declared that all men are created 
equal; were endowed by nature WMth certain inalienable rights, among which were 
life and liberty, and they could not safely renounce the principles of that declaration, 
when they came to form a national compact. 

This question of slavery, then intruding itself upon their councils, led the great 
men of the nation, if not absolutely to renounce it, at least to disregard it, and 
prompted them to make the attempt to form a government by Articles of Confede- 
ration, based upon a contract or agreement of "thirteen independent sovereignties.'^ 
It was the existence of slavery in the southern States that led them into that fatal 
error, laying at the foundation of the Articles of Confederation, of "each State re- 
taining its sovereignty." Tiiose articles looked to the power of the States as sove- 
reign, overlooking and disregarding the paramount truth, that sovereignty resided 
in the people. There Avas a jealousy at the South, where there were a great num- 
ber of slaves, that if the several States surrendered their separate sovereignty to the 
General Government, the time would come when the great wrong of slavery, exist- 
ing, as it did in violation of natural right, would be corrected by that General Gov- 
ernment. From the experience derived during the time intervening between the 
years 1783 and 1787, it was found that the National Government could not be ad- 
ministered under the Articles of Confederation — a Constitution for the United States 
was requisite. I must ask the attention of the committee while I examine, very 
briefl}', some of the circumstances connected with the formation of the Constitution 
of the United States. 

And first, it is worthy of remark, that among all the great men of the nation of 
that period, there was not one who claimed to be, or who could properly be charged 
with being, z perpetualist upon the subject of slaver}'. No, sir; not one, from any 
part of the Union. The universal sentiment of the men of that age was against it; 
openly and distinctly expressed, against it. The fathers and founders of the Repub- 
lic of that day were ardently looking forward to the time when this should become a 
great country, witii a numerous population of industrious, prosperous, intelligent 
freevK n; a time, and that not far distant, when there would be an end of slavery. 
Upon the most diligent search, I have been unable to find that there was a single 
man, ol distinguished reputation and approved patriotism, among all those who met 
in the Convention to form the National Constitution, of whom it could be justly said 
that he was a j)erp(;tualist. 

To sustain my view on this point, I first refer to the o|)inions of Thomas Jeflerson. 
To that distinguished man was assigned the duly of draughting the Declaration of In- 
dependence, 'i'he great leading idea of that wonderful document is emphatically 
anti-slavery, it maintains tiie equality of all men, and the possession, bv all men, 
of certain '"'■ inalifniable rifr/ils,-^ among which are "life, hberty, and the j)ursuit of 
happiness." Can aiiy thing go beyond this? Is it jiossibje to find language that 
can more distinctly j)roDounce the condemnation of slavery than that used in the 
Declaration of independence? I think not. 

Again, in the original draught of the Declaration of Independence, as drawn up hj 



Mt- Jefferson, among other reasons which a due respect for the opinions of man- 
kind rendered proper to be assigned for dissolving the poUtical connexion that had 
previously existed between these States and the Kingdom of Great Britain, he places 
the following as a charge against King George III: 

" He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and 
liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never oft'ended him ; captivating and carrying them into 
slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. Thia 
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfere of the Christian King of Grea^ 
Britain. Determined to keep a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted hi^^ 
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.' » 

This charge, it is true, was stricken out of the Declaration before it was adopted 
by the Continental Congress. It was too clear and forcible in its language to suit 
the taste of some gentlemen. No matter for that. Jefferson wrote it; he reported 
it. It expresses his opinion as entertained at the time, and will so reraam forever. 

Still again, Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, written about 1783 or '4, ex- 
presses, in the most full, clear, and unreserved manner, his opinions upon the char- 
acter and influences of slavery on society. He calls it a system of unmitigated 
tyranny, and he deprecates its power upon the character of the young who are 
reared up to manhood under its baleful influence. In 1784 the subject of organizing 
some kind of government for that great region of country northwest of the Ohio was 
under consideration. Mr. Jefferson proposed the famous article that "slavery, or 
involuntary servitude, should not exist therein, except as a punishment for crime, oi 
which the party should have been duly convicted." 

This all preceded the famous ordinance of 1787, in which that article is included, 
and which finally was adopted, and which was subsequently recognised under the 
Constitution. I look upon Mr. Jefferson as the author of the article subsequently 
incorporated into the ordinance of 1787. 

Mark you, Mr. Chairman, these opinions of Mr. Jefferson were the outburstings 
of his first love for free institutions and Republican government, unalloyed, unbias- 
sed, pure, and sincere. Let it not be said, then, that Mr. Jefferson, in the early 
stages of our political history, was a perpetualist. I have been caretui in my re- 
searches into the early records and documents existing, and which could throw any 
hght upon these matters; I have hunted up the famous Mecklenburg Declaration; 1 
have examined the proceedings of the Congress under the Articles of Conlederation 
and proceedings of the Convention for the formation of the Constitution; ancl 1 veri- 
ly believe I am right in assigning to Mr. Jefferson the authorship of the sentiments 
expressed by him in the documents above referred to. Were I to write a ni^^ory 
of American slavery, I should be constrained in all honesty and truth to say, tnat 
Mr. Jefferson was entitled to the credit of first publicly expressing anti-sla\ery sen- 
timents in this country;thathe was the prime originator of the anti-slavery movement. 

I am aware, Mr. Chairman, that in after life Mr. Jefferson's opinions underwent 
some change; I am not surprised that it should have been so. The cautious, saga- 
cious, wily politician found other opinions than those of the ardent, sinceie, beii- 
sacrificing young patriot to subserve his purposes and aspirations better, it couia 
not escape the far-seeing mind of such a man as Jefferson, that the "J^'titution ot 
slavery was one of those pecuharly constructed machines which the po itician coma 
readily turn to good account; that by it a kind of galvanic chain was ^0"'^."'^^^'^' ;°^: 
necting the heart-strings with the purse-strings of every slaveholder in the ^o^niry, 
that by the working of this political telegraph it affected, through the nervous fluid, 
the brain of the whole slaveholding community. It was an engme ot "^^gf ^ P^"/' 
ical power in the hand of a skilful, sagacious operator. Mr. Jeff^^!?'\ "'ryTp h-^d 
saw how important it was to him, and he could not forego its use. J^ut, ^"' "^ "J^^ 
strewn upon the earth the seminal principle of a great truth; he had adveit sed tne 
world of the true character of the slave trade and slavery; that truth ^ad takea 
deep root; it was sending forth a vigorous growth, refreshing and ^"^'f °^'^\7° °, fj 
the whole country; even Mr. Jefferson himself, had he desired to destroy it, could 
not accomplish his purpose. He, and others in the same interest, might ^catne iis 
foliage with fire-might cut, and hack, and mar, and lop off its branches,, although 



8 

the axe might be laid at its trunk, and girdled around its entire circumference — yea, 
although men might strike at its roots with plow and spade, and attempt to root it 
from the earth, still it could not be destroyed; for the truth was there; its roots were 
lirmly fixed, and it would si)rout again, strong, vigorous, and fresh, in spite of every 
assault that might be made upon it; it was destined to remain as indestructible as 
the great truths that lay at the foundation of the throne of the Deity. 

I must be allowed to refer the committee, in support of my allegation that there 
were no perpetualists in the convention assembled to form the Constitution, to the 
Madison papers, pages 1137, l'2ti3, 1447. I must refer to the letters of Washington; 
to the speeches of Governor Morris; Wilson, of Pennsylvania; and Dawes and others, 
in Elliot's Debates; and also to the famous speech of Luther Martin, of Maryland. 

I am to speak by and by of the propriety of extending slavery to the new Terri- 
tories, and I must beg of the committee to carry along with them this fact in mind, 
thai there were no perpeiualisis among the fathers of the Constitution. 

The earlv patriots of the land, seeing the necessity of an organized national gov- 
ernment, the convention came together for the purpose of forming a Constitution for 
the United States. The necessity was imperative. The public safety required it; 
and it was required as well, in order to provide the means of paying the pubhc 
ifebt, as to provide for the common defence and general welfare. The convention 
came together clothed with the sovereign power of the people. They assumed to 
speak for the people, and to make an instrument which should depend upon the au- 
thority of ''We, the people," for its vitality. Now, sk, mark the date of this con- 
vention, 17S7. Let the members of this committee ask themsclve.^, for lohat was 
that convention fo form a constitution? For what! Clearly the convention was to 
form a Constitution for the United States. Now, what was the United States in 1787.'' 

Were 1 to go to your State of Florida, INIr. Chairman, and were 1 to be so far 
charmed by the beauty of the country and the salubrity of tiie climate as to enter- 
tain the design of settling there, and'l should begin to talk with you about purchas- 
ing a farm, we would first try to ascertain its boundaries; we would try to raise the 
surveyor's monuments, his section corners and his quarter section posts, his mounds 
or his'marked trees; we would ascertain by chain and compass the quantity of land con- 
tained in the farm. As our negotiation or treaty of bargain and sale progressed ,we should 
adopt and use, invariably, the definite mode of expression; we should speak of Me 
farm, and our conversation would be definite and intelligible. Apply this plain, com- 
mon sense view of the subject to the case which 1 am considering, viz., the assem- 
bling of a convention to form a Constitution for the United States, as the United 
States was then, in the year of our Lord 1787. Can any thing be clearer? To as- 
certain what then constituted the United States, it was only necessary to refer to 
the treaty with England of 1783. There we find what was the United States; 
what every body must mean when they spoke of the United States; what every 
public document must mean when it referred to the United States, viz., to a cer- 
tain, definite, distinct, well defined tract or portion of the earth's surface, with the 
people who inhabited it. The geographical extent of the United States, marked and 
defined in the treaty of 1783, is set out as follows: The eastern boundary was on 
the Passamaquoddy bay, the Schoodic or St. Croix river, and a straight line running 
north from a certain point on the Schoodic to the northwest corner of Nova Scotia, 
on the highlands that divide the waters emptying into the Atlantic ocean from those 
emptying into the St. Lawrence; thence soutiiward and westward along said high- 
lands' until it struck the westernmost branch (jf Connecticut river; down said river 
to 4.T of north latitude; west along said parallel of latitude until it struck the St. 
Lawrence; through the great lakes and the channels of the streams to the Lake of 
the Woods; from thence southerly to the head waters of the Mississippi; down the 
main channcd of the Mississippi until it intersected the northern boundary of Lou- 
isiana; eastwardly along said northern boundary of Louisiana and the northern boun- 
dary line of Florida to the Atlantic ocean; and on the said ocean northeastwardly to^ 
tlu/Passarnaciuoddy bay. That was to be the United States; and, after the treaty of 
1783, wq6 the United States. 



There was, then, a certain, distinct, and definite tract of country to which the 
Constitution of the United States was to apply. And, now, let me ask any member 
of the committee to take the journal of that convention in his hand, and say whether 
he could believe that the men of that convention were brouji'ht to;;(^thcr for the pur- 
pose of framing a Constitution for the United Staf(^..s, did, in fact, form an iiu-trume;it 
with all the properties of a monstrous gum-elastic overshoe inverted, the toe of 
which could be drawn on over the north pole, and the heel hitched down over some 
tall mountain near the Isthmus of Darien? 

The very idea is too preposterous to be entertained for a moment by any sensible 
man of fair impartial mind. 

I will venture to assert, that the framers of the Constitution no more thought that 
the Constitution which they were making for the United States had the capacity to 
operate over the whole continent of North America, than they thought it cai)ab)e of 
being extended to operate over Siberia and China, and the Islands in the Indian 
ocean. Certain it is, such an idea never entered the heads of the honest repubh- 
can people who adopted it and gave it validity, as containing and prescribing a form 
of government adapted to their wants, their security, and their welfare. 

The Constitution adopted, the illustrious Washington was called, by the unani- 
mous voice of his fellow-citizens, to the administration of public affairs. He held 
the first office under the Constitution for eight years, and declined a re-election. 
During his administration the affairs of the country went on in comparative quiet. He 
was from a slave State and a slaveholder, yet he could realize that he was the Presi- 
dent of the whole country. He could appreciate talent and patriotism and integrity 
wherever he found it, in northern men as well as southern. If there was fault 
found with him, it did not come from northern men. 

A President from the North succeeded the great and the good Washington. He 
was a man of high abilities, of as pure a patriotism as ever warmed a human being, 
of as ardent a love for free republican institutions as ever glowed in a human heart, 
as firm a friend to the cause of freedom as could be found in the Union; but he was 
a northern man. The slave power of the country could not brook him. He failed 
of a re-election. He was prostrated, and for twenty-four years consecutively, the 
Presidency was given to the slave States, with all its patronage and all its power. 

I could wish, Mr. Chairman, that I had time to go fully into the discussion of the 
poUtical power and influence of the slave States, in connection with the election to 
the Presidency. For forty-eight years, out of sixty, has the office of President 
been held by persons identified with the slave interest. The mighty power of Ex- 
ecutive influence has been, again, and again, and again, in instances innumerable, 
invoked and used to carry measures in which the slave States felt a deep interest, 
and adverse, yea ruinous, to the great interests of the free labor of the country. I 
am precluded, by the one hour rule, from doing so at this time. 

I am compelled to hurry on to the consideration of other matters, for the purpose 
of showing that the slave power of the country for the last fifty years has governed 
the country, in relation to all great and important leading political questions; and 
particularly such questions as related to the extension of slave territory and the 
perpetuity of the slave institution, and the consequent overthrow of the political 
rights and interests of the free people of the free States of this Union. 

In 1803, when the proposition first came up for the purchase of Louisiana, Mr. 
Jefferson, after having negotiated for the purchase, stated openly, that the territory 
could not be obtained and annexed to the United States without an amendment of 
the Constitution. But it was obviously a most desirable country, embracuig a most 
salubrious chmate, and the best soil in the world. It became almost indispensable 
to our great western country, for the reason that it had control of the outlet of the 
Mississippi river. This began to be seen as early as 1804 or 180-5; and the common 
voice of the country assented to the purcha.-e, under the necessity which every 
person felt of having the control of the mouth of the Mississippi river. The pur- 
chase was accordingly made. Louisiana having been, long previously, settled by a 
mixed population of French and Spanish descent, slavery already existed there, 



10 

and it was not proposed to interrupt it in that portion of the country settled at the 
time of the purchase. 

But, in the year 1819 or 1S'20, another portion of this country, the Territory of 
Missouri, which had been in the hands of the Indian tribes up to the time of its. 
purchase by the United States, was ready to come into the Union. 

I must here remark, that when the slave power of the country once resolves upon 
any peculiar measure of policy it always holds on to it. It never gives back. In 
the classic language of the Hon. Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means^ 
when it once gets its grip upon any territory it never lets go. 

When the famous Missouri proposition was first submitted to Congress, to come 
into the Union as a slaveholding State, it was resisted by Congress; and by a vote 
in the House of Representatives the proposition was defeated. The question of ad- 
mission was decided against Missouri, if she insisted upon coming in with power ta 
hold slaves, and the consequent right of slave representation. 

But the matter was not to be determined so. At a subsequent time it w-as brought 
up again, and persevered in, until finally the purpose of the slave power was ac- 
complished, and the State of Missouri was admitted with the institution of slavery 
upon her. 

It has not required hitherto any great sagacity to be a politician in this country. 
The veriest tyro may, by very little attention, be as skilful in determining political 
results, whether relating to measures or elections, as the most experienced politi- 
cian in the land. He has only to find out, with reasonable certainty, what the 
slave power determines shall be done in the given case, and so he may be sure it 
will be done. The rule is simple, easily understood, and subject to no embarrassing 
exceptions. I should like to apjjropriate the rest of my hour to illustrate this, by 
reference to various cases in our political history, in connexion with almost every 
great and agitating question which has excited the country during the last half cen- 
tury. Peace and war, currency, tariff*, public lands, internal improvements, ap- 
pointments to office, questions of rejection from confirmation, Indian negotiations 
and removals, each and all of them furnish more or less examples and apt illustra- 
tions. But as the acquisition of territory, out of which to form slave States, has 
the prominent place, and is the most palpable instance of the overweening determi- 
nation of the slave power to extend and perpetuate itself, and govern the country 
according to its own sovereign pleasure, I must confine myself to that. 

Florida was purchased and annexed. A Florida war was prosecuted; some 
twenty or thirty millions were expended in that war, and it is well known to every 
man of reflection that the chief object of that purchase, and the subsequent expen- 
sive war to drive out a small number of wandering Indians, was to give greater se- 
curity to slave property and slave power. 

I come now to the consideration of another case more recent and more extraordi- 
nary, in the circumstances attendant upon its annexation, than any that have pre- 
ceded it. The committee must indulge me while I examine it somewhat in detail. 
It is an important case, and ought to be thoroughly understood by every American 
politician. If I do not misjudge, it inflicted the deepest wound upon the Constitu- 
tion that. ever has been inflicted upon that time-honored instrument since its adop- 
tion. It has depleted it to the very verge of endurance. Another such W'ound^ 
only one more, if we can ever imagine another administration ca])able of making it, 
and my life on it, the poor, insulted, abused Constitution will faint and die under 
the operation. I am not (|uite sure it can survive the last infliction. I must be under- 
stood, by every person who does me the honor to listen to me, to allude to the an- 
nexation of Texas, and all the circumstances antecedent which led to it, and subse- 
quent as growing out of and dependent uj)on it. 

During the administration of Mr. Van Burcn a2)plication had been niade by Texas 
to this (jovcrnment to be taken into our Federal Union. Mr. Van Buren, notwith- 
standing he had been elected as a "Northern man with Southern principles," could 
not so lar forget his oath to suj)j)ort tlie Constitution of his own country, nor could 
he so far disregard the phghtcd faith of this country to Mexico^ as to give his assent 



11 

to the application of Texas for admission. He was compelled to direct his Secretary 
of State, Mr. Forsyth, to return a negative answer to the application of Texas. That 
honest answer was the bowie knife which let the life-blood out of ])oor Mr. Van Buren. 

On the 11th of May, 1843, the last member of the Harrison Cabinet left public 
employment in the administration of John Tyler. The country was then in a pecu- 
liar position. Mr. Tyler was acting President without a party. The Whig party 
which elected him had left him. A complete separation had taken place between 
them. The great Democratic party would not adopt and sustain either him or his 
measures. Now, in this state of things, what was Mr. Tyler to do? There was but 
one course left for him. That course was obvious. He was himself identified with 
the great slave interest of the country. There was in this country a third party — a 
kind of '■Hertium quid'''' — small in numbers, but powerful in talent, at the head of 
which stood one of the ablest men in the country, of the most extensive political 
experience and political learning; whose whole life had been spent in the public 
service, and whose private character was eminently pure and above all reproach. It 
is obvious that Mr. Tyler had no alternative. It was almost a political necessity. 
He was compelled to throw himself into the arms of that third party, 

Mr. Meade, of Virginia, here rose and addressed the Chair. 

The Chairman. Does the gentleman from New Hampshire yield the floor? 

Several voices. Go on, go on. 

Mr. Wilson said: I must decline yielding the floor. I have never attempted to 
interrujit any gentleman when he has been addressing the committee or the House^ 
and I must insist on my right to proceed without interruption. 

Situated as Mr. Tyler was, he called into his Cabinet a distinguished citizen from 
the gentleman's own State, (Mr. Upshur,) and confided to his care the State De- 
partment. He was a gentleman of eminent talents, of great legal attainments and 
hterary acquirements, although not extensively known to the country as a politician 
and diplomatist. He was understood to be in sympathy with the third party to 
which I have alluded. No sooner w^as Mr. Tyler's Cabinet made up thus, than this 
Texas question was again brought under discussion with this new feature. Texas 
had before applied to this Government for admission. She had begged and implored 
the United States to accept her. Now the tables were turned. This country went 
begging, soliciting, importuning Texas to come and unite with us. A correspondence 
was opened upon the subject, induced by the facts stated in certain mysterious let- 
ters, which our Secretary of State had received from somewhere and from somebody,, 
upon the danger which was said to be impending over the slave interest in Texas, 
and consequently the slave interest in this country. This correspondence was car- 
ried on between our Secretary of State and a General Murphy, as I beheve, who 
was the agent of this Government in Texas. Our agent was instructed to represent 
to Texas, as an inducement to her to comply with our wishes, that unless she united 
with the United States, slavery could not be maintained in Texas lor ten years 
longer. A treaty for the annexation of Texas was under consideration by the Secre- 
tary of State and the agent of Texas; but, before that treaty was perfected, or in 
condition to be submitted to the Senate of the United States for ratification, that 
eminent citizen, to whom I have referred, by a most mourniul accident, whUe on a 
steamboat pleasure trip down the Potomac, suddenly ended all his negotiations upon 
the earth, and was called to his last account with his Maker above. 1 he great iieaa 
of that third party, to which I have referred, was called to the head of the ^tate De- 
partment, and addressed himself to the completion of the treaty, until it was per- 
fected and sent to the Senate. But when it reached that body, instead o liavmg a 
majority of two-thirds in its favor, (which was necessary under the Constitution m 
order to the ratification of any treaty,) it was rejected by a maioritv of t^^o-thirds. 
Two-thirds of the Senate, after deUberate investigation, put their seal of condemna- 
tion upon that treaty; and that vote of the Senate, as I believe, was a very 1 a r ex- 
hibit of the popular sentiment of the country upon the subject at the time, liut tne 
slave power did not yield to that most signal and emphatic expression. ^..^ 

This was the state of affairs in regard to Texas, when there was a certain meeUng 



12 

of politicians in the city of Baltimore, in May, 1844. This scheme for the annexa- 
tion of Texas was not to be defeated. The general sentiment of the country, as ex- 
pressed by the signal defeat of the treaty in the Senate, was treated with the most 
marked contempt. The subject of the annexation of Texas was brought up in the 
Baltimore Convention. It was literally forced upon the jrreat Democratic })artv by 
the overbearing and violent course of management of the southern delegates inth-at 
Convention. I speak the solemn trutli when I say that, at that time, a great ma- 
jority of the Democratic party at the North were o])j)osed to the annexation of Texas. 
1 could cite an overwhelming mass of testimony, would time permit, from the public 
newspapers of that day, from resolutions of ])ublic bodies, and from various other 
sources u])on that point, that upon investigation could not leave a doubt upon any 
honest mind. The whole North, of all parties, prior to May, 1S44, were almost 
unanimously opposed to annexation. But the I3allimore Convention, a self-consti- 
tuted body, coming together professedly to nominate candidates for the Presidency 
and Vice Presidency, took the subject in hand; they made the question of annexa- 
tion the test of party tidelity; they adopted certain party catch-words. "Texas and 
Oregon" were tied together by a kind of illicit semi-hymeneal bond. The Demo- 
cratic party of the North and West were to be cheated, humbugged, inveigled into 
the support of the candidates of that Convention; and that done, the great North 
was to be overrode by the annexation of Texas. "Oregon" was thrown in to cheat, 
deceive, and impose upon the honest Democracy of the West. 

When the party managers at the Baltimore Convention (and, mark you, it was 
subject entirely to southern management) proposed that the question of entire rights 
and claims in Oregon should be carried into the canvass, were they sincere; were 
they honest; did they really intend to insist upon the whole amount of our claims 
in Oregon at all hazards? Let the result answer. The western politicians un- 
doubtedly thought them sincere. General Cass spoke often and vigorously in the 
Senate upon the subject, claiming the whole of Oregon, aiid declaring that the Ad- 
ministration of Mr. Polk would insist upon the whole to .'54'^ 40'. He spoke un- 
doubtingly of the President's purpose, and said that England would not yield, and 
that " war is inevitable." The words "war is inevitable," wrung through the 
whole country. The phrase became ridiculously common throughout the land. 
Another western Senator "cried aloud," with a voice that might be heard from 
Capitol hill to the Grand Monadnock, " IVe ivill have to 54° 40', or we will fight.- ^ 
And another, still more eloquent than either, held similar sentiments. Things went 
on this way for some three months of the session of 1845-'46, and I verily believe 
the Western Senators and the great Western Democratic party were deceived, 
thoroughly overreached and imposed upon by this Southern political jugglery about 
Oregon. I am led to this conclusion from a scene I witnessed in the Senate during 
one of the days about the last of February or the first of March, 1846. A Demo- 
cratic Senator from North Carolina, (Mr. Haywood,) rose calmly in his place, and 
coolly, with placid countenance and gentlemanly bearing, administered a chilling re- 
buke to the "war is inevitable " 54^ 40' or fight men, by telling them plainly that 
they misunderstood Mr. Polk altogether. Tiiat he was ready to compromise the 
Oregon boundary line upon 49°. 

Sir, I can never forget that outburst of eloquent Indignation, towards the Presi- 
dent, from a Western Senator, upon this accredited announcement being made by 
the Hon. Senator from N. C. "What," (said the Hon. Senator,) "is it i)i)ssible 
the President is going to desert us? Can it be that he will assent to the abandon- 
ment of any j)art of Oregon short of .54° 40'? If he does, he will sink to an infamy 
fex) deep that the hand of the resurrection will not reach him." 

But I must go back to the Baltimore Convention of May, l!S44, for the purpose of 
examining its doings a little more minutely, and more fully to illustrate my posi- 
tion that the slave power, whenever it resolves uj)on carrying any measure, never 
rrt)an(Ions it, never lets any means escape it which may tend to aid in the accom- 
plishment of its purpose. 



13 

Prior to the assembling of the Baltimore Convention of May, 1844, who had heard 
the name of James K. Poik, of Tennessee, mentioned for the Presidency? Had it 
been placed at the head of any Democratic newspaper in the coimtry, and kept 
there for any length of time, before that Convention? If it had, sir, I must say 1 
had never seen it, had never heard of it; and, from that day to the present, I have 
not seen the first man who had seen it, nor the first visionist who had ever dreamed 
of such a thing. Who did not know that, at the assembling of that Convention, 
<' the Northern man with Southern principles " had a large majority of its delegates 
in his favor? Several of the members from the North avowed openly thatlhey 
would go into the Convention as the uncompromising friends of Mr. Van Buren. 
But the two-thirds rule was sprung upon the Convention, and that killed poor ]\Ir. 
Van Buren dead as a hammer. He had written the Texas letter, and it was found 
necessary to kill him off, in order to secure the success of the slave power in ac- 
comphshing its purpose in the annexation of Texas. On the first ballot, it was 
found that Mr. Van Buren had 143 votes, while Mr. Cass had but 90. But, as the 
balloting continued, these candidates so far changed sides that, while Mr. Van Buren 
went down nearly to 90, Mr. Cass went up to about 140; and then they let him go. 
The slave power had accomplished its purpose — it had defeated Mr.' Van Buren. 
Did the southern men then intend to nominate General Cass? Were they sincere 
in running him? No! they could have done so if they had pleased. (General Cass 
was then understood to be a Wilmot proviso man, and long after that entertained the 
same sentiments. No; the politicians of the South were not sincere; they were 
only using General Cass, a northern man, as the wood-chopper uses his beetle — 
they swung him round and round, bringing his great weight to bear, until, by re- 
peated blows, they beat the brains out of the unfortunate little Dutchman; and then, 
upon examining the tool with which they had been operating, they found it battered, 
split, shivered into splinters, and they threw it unceremoniously away, as unfit for 
further use. 

The ballotings for a candidate for the Presidency continued through some 33, 34, 
or 35 different trials, if my memory is accurate. The excitement became intense, 
if credit is to be given to the facts as stated by the letter-writers who witnessed it, 
and we may well infer that from the published journal — an adjournment took place. 
An artificial state of things had been produced by the management and mana?uver- 
ing of the southern politicians. It was a point at which they had been aiming from 
the commencement. Then came expressions of great concern and alarm for the 
safety of the great Democratic party. Then suggestions for a compromise — compro- 
mise, that ill-fated word, so fatal to every northern interest. Compromise carried 
the day. All the former candidates were dropped, and a compromise effected upon 
James K. Polk, who was nominated the next morning. For effect he was dubbed 
Young Hickory. On the flag of the party was inscribed Polk and Dallas — Texas 
and Oregon; it was given to the breeze and was successful. And I would now ask, 
where is the honest northern or western Democrat who can study this chapter of the 
political history of his party, and say that he teels proud of the record? 

The election of Mr. Polk settled the question of the annexation of Texas. Other 
frauds, to be sure, bad to be practised; other and deeper wounds had to be inflicted 
upon the Constitution in order to do it. But the election of Mr. Polk gave to the 
Slaveholding-Texas-annexation party, the Executive patronage of the Government, 
and the rest was easily accomplished. Time does not permit me to pursue this par- 
ticular branch of the subject further. 

I come now to the consideration of the general question of the power and duty of 
Congress in regard to the subject of slavery in the Territories. That Congress has 
the power to legislate for the Territories, cannot admit of a reasonable doubt. I look 
upon it now as merely a question of expediency, whether Congress will or not legis- 
late upon that subject. I do not stop to argue about its constitutionality. The time 
for argument on that question has long since gone by. That power has been exer- 
cised by Congress; has been recognised and acted upon ever since the adoption of 
the Constitution. If Congress can do anything for the Territories, it can make laws 



14 

in relation to the subject of slavery, to have effect within the Territories, as well as 
anything else. Slavery cannot exist anywhere except by positive law, it being in 
derogation of natural right. Now, sir, I regard slavery as a blighting, withering 
curse upon every country with which it is infested. It passes over a country like a 
prairie tire; it burns up every green thing on the face of the earth, and, not content 
with that, it ])enetrates into the soil itself", and burns out its very power of produc- 
tiveness. You cannot, Mr. Chairman, look out from one of the windows of this 
Capitol, in any direction, and let your eye traverse the surrounding country, without 
seeing convincing evidence of this truth. The earth itself, the dilapidated buildings 
and ruined fences, become vocal in attestation of it. You cannot walk through the 
public market place of this city without seeing full and convincing proof of it. The 
dumb beasts, yea, even the yokes and gears and implements of husbandry on the 
slave plantations all around us, speak out and bear unconflicting testimony of the 
blighting etiects of slavery. Is this institution, then, with such characteristics and 
attendant evils, to be sent into the Territories over which Congress has jurisdiction, 
by the exercise of the law-making power? Or, in other words, shall it be permitted 
to go and spread itself over those Territorie.s to curse and ruin them, when Congress 
has the power to prevent it? 

The American Colonies passed laws to restrain the slave trade here before the Re- 
volution, and asked the royal approval of those laws, which the British King, in- 
fluenced by the base and sordid motives of his English subjects, withheld. The co- 
lonists, seventy-five years ago, were loud in their condemnation of the King for 
withholding his approval. Shall we, the members of an American Congress, in a 
free republican government, in this age of christian light and christian philanthro- 
py — shall we send an institution to curse and crush the people of our Territories, of 
which our fathers justly complained of their governors for sending upon them three- 
fourths of a century gone by? * 

Congress, it was said the other day by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Pres- 
ton,) held only a trust power for the Territories — a mere temporary power, which we 
must soon surrender. Very well; I agree to that; but I maintain that Congress is 
bound, in good faith, to take due and proper care of the estate while it is in posses- 
sion for the benefit of the cestui (p.ie trust. The trustee is not at liberty to abuse 
the trust; not at liberty to embarrass or encumber the estate; not at liberty to per- 
mit it to deteriorate in value; not to send upon it by order, or to permit a trespass 
upon it by his negligence, the blighting curse of the slave institution. 

I hold that Congress is bound to take care of the Territories, and so execute the 
trust as will best promote the permanent interest of those who may hereafter be en- 
titled to the beneficial use. As a member of this Congress, I feel that I sustain a 
part of that responsibility, and it is my desire to acquit myself woithily in meeting 
it. I desire so to acquit myself that my own conscience will not upbraid me, and 
that, when I shall pass away, no reproach shall fall upon me, or my children after 
me, for my acts here upon this momentous question. I have, sir, an only son, now 
a little fellow, whom some of this committee may have seen here. Think you that, 
when I am gone, and he shall grow up to manhood, and shall come forward to act 
bis part among the citizens of the country, I will leave it to be cast in his teeth, as 
a reproach, that his father voted to send slavery into those Territories ? No; oh, no ! 
I look reverently up to the Father of us all, and fervently implore of Him to spare 
the child that reproach. May God forbid it! 

Sir, let Congress give to "those Territories free institutions and equal and just 
laws — institutions and laws that will improve, enlighten, educate, and elevate those 
who are now there, those who may hereafter go there, and the generations that may 
be born there in all after time. Those are the institutions and laws, and those 
only, that 1 am willing to be instrumental in sending into that comparatively new 
country. 

I have said that it is characteristic of the slave power to accomplish all its po- 
litical purposes in this Government. I must now say that I think the power and in- 
fluence of slavery over the action of Congress is impaired, if not entirely gone. I 



15 

make this declaration, not because I have any confidence in the politicians of the 
day. No, sir; I have none whatever. The politicians are just as ready now to 
betray their constituents as they ever have been. I am sorry to say there is evi- 
dence enough of this. My confidence is in the people. They have taken the mat- 
ter into their own hands; they have brought themselves into order of battle and line, 
without the word of command from any political leader. There they stand, with 
front rank and rear rank, and rank of file-closers, in position, with bayonets at a 
charge. They have spoken to their Representatives in a voice of thunder, and 
warned them against abandoning their interests. They have bid them do it at their 
peril. The constituencies have challenged their Representatives to betray their 
trusts, and skulk, and retreat upon them, if ihey dared. And, sir, the constituen- 
cies have spoken '-'■upon honor. ''^ They are determined, and will execute their pur- 
poses. 

There was a time when, if the slave power had any special work to be done, and 
wanted a northern man to do it, they hunted him up from New Hampshire; little, 
unfortunate New Hampshire was called upon to furnish the scavenger to do the 
dirty work. That day, thank God, has gone by, and it will not come again very 
soon. 

The reform has been the work of the people themselves. Politicians have had 
little to do with it. I think they rather resisted it; but the people triumphed, and 
the work is well done. If I do not misjudge, it is universally so throughout the 
whole extent of the northern States, from the Passamaquoddy bay to the head waters 
of the Des Moines river. 

I was surprised to hear the declarations made the other day by the gentleman 
from Indiana (Mr. Thompson) upon this subject. I was almost led to infer from 
his remarks that, in Indiana, the people went with the slave power in its measures, 
and that the free labor of that noble, thriving, enterprising State was ready to sur- 
render all its interests to the supervisory care and tender mercies of the southern 
politicians. On inquiry from other sources, I learn that it is not quite so; and, if I 
am not mistaken, when that gentleman comes to explain the positions talcen in his 
recent speech to the free laboring peoj^le of his district, he will be met by difficul- 
ties hard to overcome. 

The North are not disposed to trespass or interfere with the rights of the South. 
Where slavery exists within the States, and recognised by the Constitution of the 
United States, the northern people claim no right to interfere with it by any pohtical 
action of this Government. The people ask no action by Congress on the subject 
of slavery within the States. But gentlemen need not ask me for my vote to extend the 
institution of slavery one single inch beyond its present boundaries. Did I say an 
inch, Mr. Chairman ? Aye, I would not extend it one sixteen thousandth part of a 
hair's breadth. I would not extend it, because it would be doiag an irretrievable 
wrong to my fellow man; because it would be doing irreparable wrong to those Ter- 
ritories for which we are now to legislate; because it would be doing violence to 
nature and to nature's God; and because it would be a wicked and wanton betrayal 
of the trust confided to me by the free, intelligent constituency which has done me 
the honor to send me here. 

It shall not be in the power of any man to shake a menacing finger at me, and 
look me in the face with a gibe of contempt, and say to me, in the insulting language 
of a former representive from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) " we have conquered you, 
and we will conquer you again; we have not conquered you by the black slaves of 
the South, but by the white slaves of the North." No, sir, that remark never shall 
apply to me. Gentlemen need not talk to me, or attempt to frighten me, by threats 
of the dissolution of the Union. Sir, I do not permit myself to talk or even think 
about the dissolution of the Union; very few northern men do. We all look upon 
such a thing as impossible. But, sir, if the alternative should be presented to me 
of the extension of slavery or the dissolution of the Union, I would say, rather than 
extend slavery, let the Union, aye, the universe itself be dissolved ! Never, never 
will I raise my hand or my voice to give a vote by which slavery can or may be 



16 

extenJed. As God is my judge I cannot, I will not, be moved from the purpose 
1 have now announced. 

The dilhculties which 5>urround vis, spiino:ino; from this question of slavery, are the 
natural result of the different character of the labor of the two districts of country. 
In the tree States of this Union labor stands upon a different footing from what it 
does in any other part of the world. There, labor is an independent agent. It 
works when it pleases, for whom it pleases, where it pleases, at what it pleases, and 
makes its own terms and conditions. The laboring man stands upon his own rights. 
He chaffers freely with his employer how he shall be fed, furnished, lodged, and 
what sort of specific conveniences for his labor shall be furnished to him. In that 
free country, when a man wishes to employ a laborer, the parties, the employer and 
the employed, stand upon a perfect equality the one with the other. The employer 
states what lie wants done, and asks of the laborer if he can do it. If he gets an 
afhrmative answer, the price per day, week, month, or year is talked of and agreed 
upon. The laborer does not pull off his hat to his employer, but stands on a perfect 
equality with him; and when they both come to the ballot-box, there again there is 
perfect equality. The one has just as good a vote as the other. 

Is there such a labor in any other part of the world? I venture to assert that 
there is not. Is there such an enviable condition of labor to be found in our own 
country, south of Mason and Dixon's line? Let us look a moment and see how it is 
there. The gentleman at the South, if he wants anything done which requires 
manual labor, throws himself down upon his lounge or his easy chair, in his office or 
study, and, without any disturbance or consultation from or with anybody, considers 
of the matter he wants accomplished. He has no bargains to make, no disagreeable 
chafiering with a laboring man about prices of labor per day, or week, or month, or 
year, and board and lodging, &.c. Nothing of all this. When he has properly con- 
sidered his object, and the force necessary to accomplish it, he considers how much 
it will cost him to purchase the requisite weight of human bones and muscles, wrapt 
up in black skins, to do hi.s work. He asks no consent of the laborer. He judges 
what board and lodging and conveniences are necessary to be furnished to the la- 
borer. The laborer has nothing to say about all that. There is an obvious, a marked 
difference between the labor of the North and the South. Every laborer at the 
North, (and northern men are almost all laborers,) is a free man. He has a vote, 
and sustains his just share of the sovereignty. The great mass of the laboring men 
at the South are slaves, and have, individually, no share of the sovereignty — the 
master has three-fifths of it for them. 

Compare the labor in our free States with the condition of labor in France, Eng- 
land, Germany, Russia, or any other part of the Eastern Continent. You will find 
that labor there, instead of being the free, independent agent it is here in our free 
States, is substantially a dependant agent — the mere subject of arbitrary power. 
It has no alternative but to work or to starve. Such has never been the degraded 
condition of labor in our free States; and, by the blessing of God, I hope it never 
may be. It cannot be, if the free laboring people understand their rights. That 
free labor is becoming tired of the control of the slave power of the South; a power 
which is constantly exerting itself to prostrate the just political influence of the free 
laboring portion of the country, and to check, restrain, and embarrass that free labor 
in its efforts to attain a high degree of industrial prosperity. 

Mr. Chairman, I have but very imperfectly accomplished the duty I had assigned 
my.self on this momentous question; but I am admonished that the pendulum of the 
clock is upon its last vibration of the hour allotted to me. I have made up the re- 
cord of this day's work of my life— imperfect I know. But I am willing it should be 
unnjllcd and read by tiie whole jjeople whom 1 have the honor to represent; I am 
willing it .should beread by Ihe people of this great country; above all, I am willing 
it should be unrolled and read by the light of eternity, in {lie presence of the assem 
bled universe, and to abide the decree of the Omnipotent Judge upon the record. 



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